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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A gathering of friends, fun, food, and laughter. That described yesterday's We3 art day. Now I have to admit, I'm not a card maker. I make Christmas tip-ins, double sided decorated paged that can be added to an altered book. I've done this for six years and will make the 7th edition this year. So why did I want to make Christmas cards this year? As a challenge and to tout UHU glue, which (in my estimation) sponsored this get-together. They provided me with Twist & Glue, UHU Stic (glue sticks), and Glue Rollers.

Kathy brought a ton of papers, rubber stamps, stickers, you name it. She also brought cards she had been making for weeks to exchange.

As you can see, the tables are filled with supplies, and those don't begin to include everything because the bulk of the "goodies" were stacked on my table in the craft room. Nope, your eyes aren't going bad. I just haven't got the hang of the new camera yet.

Kathy is showing something to Dana, while I prepare to start a technique I've wanted to try ever since I saw it demoed by Tim Holtz. I may not care for a lot of his products, but I sure like his ideas.

Kathy bought a new Martha Stewart punch set and was excited to try it. She never got it to work properly, but got a few decent cards after awhile.

Bluebeard, standing on the ONLY scratching pad he'll use, got tagged by Kathy's punch outs as he sat under her feet. Looks like he got in on the fun, too.

For my project, I started with the Poinsettia stamp I borrowed from Kathy. I used the foam I got on clearance a long time ago at Mrs. O'Leary's. I was tickled when I found it and was just waiting for the right time to use it. Today was the day. To begin this technique, I turned the stamp so the wood was against the foam,

then scored around the edges.

The next step was to cut the foam to the exact size of the stamp, so I would have the perfect guide for the pad.

Next I stamped the image using a Staz-on pad. Sorry about the lousy photo. Again, I have no idea why some photos come out great and others are so out of focus. The reinkers I used are in the background: Mustard, Flaming Red, Cactus Green, and Black, all by Staz-on.

By following the stamp outline, I simply colored in the correct colors I wanted to use and created a custom stamp pad. Although I didn't take any photos of the final stamped piece, the idea is to position your rubber stamp over the stamp pad and you can make multiple stampings. I made 31 cards before I had to re-ink the stamp pad. I made nearly 50 cards before I stopped. Kathy asked for a sentiment stamped in hers, but Dana wanted hers left blank. I stamped a sentiment in some of mine, others I left blank.

After I finished my stamping, we ate a lunch of stuffed peppers, fish sticks, and a wonderful salad Kathy brought that she had left over from a church luncheon. For dessert, we had peanut butter cookies. Then it was back to making more cards.

The cards I made: the poinsettia cards are at the top, all 15 are the same, and one ribbon tree for each person.

Kathy's contribution: all the cards with envelopes are ones she made previously at her home and brought. There are 7. We each got one of the same design. The eighth one, the green one in the lower right, incorporates her new punches which made the lovely edges and corners that look like tatting.

These are Dana's. This was the first time Dana had ever made cards, too, and I thought she did a great job using Kathy's Santa stamp and her new punch. Again, each person got one. All the above cards are the ones I kept. Kathy and Dana have identical cards.

I was tickled that we got so many cards, had so much fun, laughed, hugged Bleubeard, and renewed our friendship. And the fact that my technique came out even better than I expected was the icing on the cake (or doughnut).

Bleubeard and I welcome you

Art, including the journey, background techniques, new experiments, photos, failures, and successes will be shared on this site. I have removed my e-mail address until such time as I can get it to work again. Thank you for understanding. You can always leave a note on my blog and I will visit you.

Please check out my Previous Collaborations link above to see what projects I have been involved in over the past seven years. Current and ongoing projects only are shown below.

Occasionally, Silent Sunday will showcase photos of my home, neighborhood, or community. A picture is often worth a thousand words.

Feelfree to drop by every second Thursday of the month for my Second Thursday Tutorials. They are interspersed with my other Tutorials found at the link above.